Pics and Giggles

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De-Federalizing Samantha

I was at the best resource site for Ron Paul writings, (click here.. if you dare!) and was really impressed with his stance on De-federalizing social issues. I have seen him appearing on CNN a lot .. maybe he is finally on the "political radar". I sure hope so!

Wonderful

Thursday went so great! I went to the gym with Maria and was very proud of my workout. I also figured out I need a good stretching beforehand. :-)
On the way home, Matthew and I stopped at Rib n Loin and picked up BBQ sandwiches for ourselves and my sister, mom, and dad. It was a great dinner, and all counted up, I only ate 1690 calories throughout the day! And I didn't even miss out on anything.
We heard back from the Clayton dealer in Athens and he was able to get us the larger house, with better options, for the same amount of money! Well, they "made it work" to earn our business, because I know they are giving us a huge discount for all of the options we elected for. But that is a plus when buying mobile homes rather than regular homes.. they can pretty much do whatever it takes to fit your budget and make you buy from them. So, we will most likely be ordering from him soon, after we get a few things squared away.
Woohoo

Personal Fuel

Resting (basal) metabolic rate: 2439 calories per day
Typical daily activities: 1189 calories per day
Typical daily intake: 2300 calories per day
Total calories burned: 1328 per day
Note: 3500 calories = 1 pound weight loss


I got this info from a calorie counter website. I was completely honest and now I have a tangible calculation to work with. If I just stay on task and don't pig out on Little Debbies or anything, I should steadily lose weight (Although the PCOS makes it 10 times harder!)
Yay!

The picture of the plate of celery above represents 200 calories. Now, I just need to like celery.....

Cheddar

I began my new workout regimen after work Wednesday and started slowly, a brisk walk on the treadmill for about 30 minutes. I am just so happy that I now have people to go with! Being there with people I actually know made me feel a lot less self-conscious.
I also began a food diary with calorie counter spreadsheet I am maintaining at work. Yesterday was my trial run, and I was trying hard not to alter my normal food intake, so that I get an accurate picture of what I eat, snacks and all. Well, it was enlightening. Just one day and I consumed almost 2300 calories. Although I don't usually eat breakfast, I had a half of a plain McD biscuit and that might have skewed things. Oh well. I am beginning to try and consume less starting today, although it will be a slow process, and I am not immediately going to get rid of the indulgences I know I need to unload, like "Real" Cokes!

I was the recipient of a generous donation of one goldfish by my sweet nephew. He did not come with a name, or a definite gender. I am naming him Cheddar, because he makes me crave the Pepperidge farms Goldfish snacks.
After the Wal-Mart fiasco this weekend, Matthew and I went to PetCo and looked around at what they have to offer. I am leery about getting any more fish right now, because I want to make sure I can handle the water chemistry and general tank maintenance before I commit to too much too soon. I bought some food just for goldfish, some clarifying drops, and a PH test kit. I already have some PH tablets, so I think I am good to go. I just have to decide if I want the bar magnet glass cleaners, or the wands that look like something for your dirty dishes. Oh Well.


No news on the second house quote yet....

Cool!

How neat. I really like the Idaho one.

Live Images!

Holiday Blessings.. and Holiday Rantings.

Obligatory Disney Picture. You can also follow the link to the right and see them all.
~~~Blessings~~~
I hope everyone's Christmas weekend was as good as mine.
I had a lovely breakfast with my friend, Niki. The weather was pleasant, too.
Matthew and I went with my Mom Saturday and toured the mobile home dealerships in the area again, finding a new floorplan we like very much. I will hear back today to see if this new dealership in Athens can beat the estimate from the one in Chattanooga. I like being able to sit back and make decisions slowly, with a lot of information.
I spent a morning with my sister and nephew, Matthew made lunch for us, and the weekend sailed by.
Then on Christmas Day we went to Matthew's parents' house. Dinner was great, and we stayed way past our bedtime but we enjoyed ourselves so much it was hard to leave.
Christmas went off without a hitch, and I hope that everyone was happy with what they received as gifts from us. With our holiday budget we tried really hard to place the emphasis on quality gifts, and not quantity of gifts. I think we ended up giving some thoughtful gifts. It only seemed fitting then, that our gifts we received this Christmas have been the most thoughtful, loving, memorable things to cherish. So, I feel really great about the whole thing.
The main part was we had two really great evenings with each of our families.

~~~Rantings~~~
Well, Matthew got me an aquarium for Christmas. I had been hinting that it would be nice to have one, but he suprised me on Sunday and we bought a nice set at Wal-Mart, 14 gallons. That was nice.
I set it up, and over many rises in my blood pressure and hollering for assistance, Matthew and I got all the bubbly contraptions connected and working properly. We were given a goldfish, donated by my nephew, and that was really nice.
Then came Monday, Christmas Eve, and my sister and I headed into town to get a few things and I went back to the same Wal-Mart where I bought the tank and set out to find a few more fish.
I was appalled at the state of the fish department! There was no employee back there at all, and at least 5-15 fish in EACH TANK were dead! The poor lonely Beta fish that they keep in all of 1/2 inch of water in their solitary cups were mostly living, although a few were belly-up. The sink area had about 5 dead goldfish laying in it like hours past an employee cared enough to clean out a tank, then just gave up and never thought another thing about it. It was so gross!
I had never seen so many fish dead before at once! I was so sickened. But as I was waiting on my sister to come back from the grocery side of the store, I was stuck there. Stuck staring at the pools of dead fish.
And I vowed to call the manager on Wednesday. I also vowed to not purchase ANY fish from Wal-Mart ever again, even if it means paying more $ to go to the pet stores. Who knows why those fish even died, they could have been neglected, over-crowded, under-fed, or just plain diseased! And I am not putting a possible disease carrying fish into my aquarium.
The worst part was a little girl about 7 or so that stood there with me talking about all the dead fish and carrying-on. I felt bad for her, and also wondered where her parent's were. In my mind they told her to go watch the pretty fish while they snagged up some last minute toys from the adjoining department without her seeing, only to come back to find her crying and morbidly fascinated with the display of dead fish. Merry Christmas! ick!
Then I get to work this morning to the same-old, predictable behavior patterns I am used to. Home Sweet Home! The genuine nice people inquiring on how my Christmas went versus the self-centered, ego-driven, materialistic people who only want to know what you got compared to what they got. Yuck! Elementary, revisited around here!
So, I just said I got some "nice things, but the best part was getting to relax and spend time with loved ones." That got the pesky person out of my office - QUICK!

Eat that - petty people who only want to talk about themselves! HA

Friday! At Last!

Random Disney Picture-a-Day

Last night we went to Matthew's parents' house and had a great dinner and had more people to impose our vacation photos on! HaHaHa

I am so glad the end of this incredibly loooong week is here! 4 day weekend!!

Almost there!

Random Disney Picture-a-Day

Last night we went to Mom's for some soup.. excellent! I went with my Sis and Nephew Bowling, Fun!

Funny Funny

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Christmas was great

Random Disney Picture-a-Day

We had a great time last night exchanging gifts with all of my family. My om made an awesome dinner!

Matthew got a cookbook!

and here is Matthew showing off his present to my Nephew!

Neat-O !

The 24 million World War I Draft Registration Cards in the custody of the National Archives Southeast Region provide an invaluable resource for academic researchers and genealogists. All males in the United States, born between the years 1872 and 1900, were required by law to register for the draft throughout 1917 and 1918. This series of records includes cards from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The answers provided to the questions on the cards typically reveal details about where a man lived, his occupation, race, immigration status, and in many cases his place of origin and nearest relative. The following selection presents a unique snapshot of what is available in this extensive collection.

I personally like looking at what people put as their occupations(Duncan Hines was a salesman? James Cagney was a Draughtman? I don't even know what that is!) and their ages at the time.

And get a load of the handwriting! Wow.

Christmas a week early!

Random Disney Picture-a-Day
Oh No! Matthew, watch out for that Viking!!!

Well, last night we spent some time at Mom's house, and picked up a cheese ball she had made for my office.
My Sis and I drove around a few blocks and saw the disappointing Christmas lights. :-( Oh Well.
When I got home I realized that we had gotten the Disney package I was waiting on, and in PERFECT timing, since we are exchanging gifts with my family tonight!
I am so happy everything got here in time. WooHoo!

Merry Christmas!

Weekend whimpers

I am going to begin this week with a bang! Random Disney Picture-a-Day!


Last week was entirely ruined. My ears throbbed and my stomach ached so badly I was not about to force my misery on my co-workers, so I stayed home. Got caught up on some TV episodes I had from the vacation. Michael came up Friday night and we watched a scary movie called Severance. I had watched it the day before with my sis, so I was about 20% less frightened.
This weekend Matthew, S, and I all went driving to Tullahoma (stopping a LOT for my terrible tummy!) We went to a Clayton dealer up there and saw a comparable doublewide to the one we want, which is currently nowhere in the TN Valley for us to arrange a walk-through.
But things seem to work out just fine anyways, and since we are going to order the house, instead of buying a model off of a lot, we can take our time, and not be in some frantic rush.. which is such a blessing because of budgetary constraints brought on from vacation and holiday gift-buying. Whew!
So, we have our approval pending some routine documents about workplaces and finances, and then we will be ready to order the house. I am really betting on it being ordered in January, since there is SO much going on for us at the end of the year.
I still feel wimpy and gross today, but I made it in to work OK and I am looking forward to getting back into some regular paychecks again.
We found a great airbed at Target last night for $25! and the pump was, of course, $21, so we got a cool temporary mattress for all of forty-six bucks! The 4'' serta memory foam mattress fits perfectly and we slept on the best cloud ever last night! I woke up a ton of times, not uncomfortable, just kept waking myself up.. maybe it needs more air. We will have to fiddle with it tonight some more.
Anyway, so I am just looking forward to getting through the end of the year with everything OK, and getting back to normal. Christmas shopping sure does take a chunk out of me.. but I just can't say NO when I buy for other people. :-)
We got our pricey prints from Disney and they are so cute! I am waiting on one more package we arranged to have delivered from Epcot on the 8th, but they have until the 22nd to deliver.
I made come candy goodies witht he help on my Sis and Nephew last night. I made white-chocolate cheerios candy, and my nephew made some ooey-gooey rice krispies treats.. YUM!!

We are doing Christmas with my family a full week early. We are meeting tomorrow night after work at my parent's house and will get the whole gift-thingy over with. I am excited to see my nephew open all the stuff he's getting. I have a few small things for everyone else, but for the most part my parents and sister already have their big gifts from us. Since my nephew will be away at his Dad's for the holiday, we are giving him a full week to play with his toys and I am cool with that.
Because the more we get through with the non-religious aspect of it, the more time we have on Christmas Eve and Day to go to midnight mass and not feel like we are going in too many directions. I like getting the presents over with early, it doesn't spoil anything for me. The only place I want to be on Christmas Eve is at the midnight mass. It really is something. I know the first year Michael went with us and it is so nice to have someone there who gets into the Christmas songs as much as I do. Matthew enjoys them, but I really like to belt them out! HaHa.
Hopefully it will be as beautiful as past years' have been.
Ont he political scene I keep getting all these e-mails from Ron Paul supporter's about some huge fundraising record he accomplished. That's so great! I know I have seen a couple of hundred signs all over Chattanooga recently.. and there is a huge surge of grassroots support here. It would be nice to get a little more press attention, though.
Well, I hope everyone is well and looking forward to Christmas!!

The anatomy of vacation

Well, it is over. Our week-long festivities at Disney World have ended, and we all came back tired, sick of beiing around so many people, but still on good terms with each other, and that is all that counts.
I could rant and rave about all the unsupervised kids, annoying temperaments, lackluster customer service, a grueling haul home after almost 14 hours in the parks (thank to the maker's of Visine and No-Doz).. but I choose NOT to. I am totally zen.
All in all, it was a great vacation because we always have so much to do and good memories to take home.
Maria at work has told me about Wal-Mart's collage thingamajig (see pic above!).. and I have playing around all day with it, I love it. I am going to wait to order one (or more!) until I get a copy of Michael and Jennifer's pictures too. Because that is the best part of it all, getting to save all those pictures and be creative about how you do it.
We got good news on the house while in Orlando, and we will hopefully have something lined up soon!